Well it's late spring (opps summer is here!) and after Two days the bathroom is demoed. 100 years of lathe and plaster plus nasty insulation equals one heck of a mess. Anyway it's underway!

Before



Today - blank canvas ;)

Yikes! You are giving me flashbacks!

Good riddance to crappy bathtubs.

I spent the weekend putting insulation back in. Added R30 over the top of old, nasty insulation.
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Took my first "selfie". The girlfriend was upset we don't have any pictures of us together. Now we do:

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I know, I'm a hopeless romantic at heart.

I have also drywalled, textured & painted my spare bedroom. An old friend moved back to town, and is currently squatting in that room, so I don't have any pictures.

In addition to the drywall & insulation, almost all wiring is complete. All lights & outlets are live. Even my irrigation pump & sprinklers are wired & working. The pump & sprinkler wiring still needs cleaned up & mounted permanently, but its super close.

All that is left is some drywall patches, texture & paint for the living rooms and I'll be at a new stopping point. Things will get expensive after that, but less labor intensive. New windows & doors (interior & exterior), flooring & kitchen cabinets & counters will be next.

Looking good! I'm going to restore the windows starting with the bathroom. I have the pulley ropes with weights and to my surprise when I pulled the window surrounds there's two weights on each side! Which means the windows used to open from the top and bottom.

Have you stripped paint or just replaced stuff? I'm planning on stripping the paint on the windows. Was looking at trying one of those infrared things. There is so much paint on this stuff.

Thanks!

I haven't stripped any paint. The old windows & trim are very old and crappy. Many of my windows had obviously been "recycled", as many building supplies were in Gunnison. I've replaced a couple in the back of my house, but have more to do. The added insulation value of the new windows made the change well worth it.

I'm really looking forward to see how much the attic insulation helps this winter. So far I've changed out (or removed) all the old windows & doors & blown insulation into previously uninsulated walls in the back of my house. That made a huge difference. All my wall r-value was from the fabric wall paper. In the front of the house, we've floated a new floor a couple inches above the old floor. We added blue board insulation under the floor, and that has helped tremendously too. I wish I had known I was going to raise the floor when I started, I would have run infloor heat & removed the hydronic baseboard radiators (my one big regret). But that would have greatly complicated my scheduling & budgeting. I've been able to do all this with no loans, this has made the timeline & order of projects somewhat discombobulated.

Tedious update. A final hard push is being made to get to some stage of completion. The goal is a refinance, lower my rate, as I've been stuck in some phase of demolition/construction since 2006ish, and couldn't get a decent appraisal.

Since I last left you, I've pretty much tied up all electrical. I think I might be able to call in for a final inspection in the next week.

All drywall is patched, textured, & painted. I'll have some final touch up to do once trim is up.

We've acid washed the brick wall in the living room, rinsed & sealed it. It turned out beautiful. My friend came through with some awesome waxed antique wood, FREE! He boxed in one old window into shelf space. The other window will be finished out in the same wood into a gun cabinet.


We've started some final trim work around the beams & brick wall. Alder trim to match the bedroom & doors for the spare bedroom & coat closet have been ordered. They are about 1 month out. Hopefully I can have everything in order when they arrive & get them sanded, stained & installed quickly.

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In the last week, we've floated the final floor. The whole front 2/3 of the house has been floated up 1.5"-3". This made it level to the kitchen/bed/bath portion of the house, that was built higher than the rest. It has also leveled & strengthen a 130 yr old floor that had settled badly. And maybe most importantly, it gave room for 1.5"-2" blue board insulation. What an amazing difference.

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There are probably lots of of other things I probably haven't mentioned, & still lots more to do. But I might see a light at the end of the tunnel. Then I'll get refinanced & have some money to get new kitchen cabinets, windows, garage heat. Great, more projects.

More pics here:
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Great work Chad! Keep it up.

x2, it's coming along!

nice dude, its looking great

That is a big project and I know many folks who also did their own remodels. It takes LOTS of time and determination, but keep at it and you'll have one big reason to pat yourself on the back when it's done!

Ok, this is weird and shows how small the world is. I remember your house when I saw the photo and knew where it is in town.




My ex friend lived close by at Ruby and Main, he added the porch around 2006(?). He repainted house the also. Now its a office with the two very large pines. His name was Troy, a painter. Did you know him?





We were looking at houses to buy in that area back in the late 90's and early 2000's.




J.E.

That is funny! I do live very close to Ruby & Main, I can't picture the house off hand. I'll check it out on the way back to work. I don't know anyone named Troy, but would probably know his face.

I bought this house, in 1996 (I was 24). It wasn't planned, and sort of out of desperation. Rentals here are difficult to find, especially with a dog, expensive, and pretty crappy all things considered. I was also learning that I needed a garage to fix up/modify the 1974 Bronco I had bought the year before. I hated where I lived, and a friend mentioned a small house with a big garage for sale. I don't know why, I drove over and looked at it. I wasn't really looking for a house. I had a friend look at the house with me the next day. And bid/bought it a day later. The owners had just dropped the price $15K, a day or two before. I call it "the last good deal in Gunnison". If I hadn't bought it, I might not still live here. It makes living here reasonable, despite the low wages.

Still pushing through projects, almost every evening & through the long Christmas weekend. I haven't hit the slopes yet. Hoping I can squeeze a day or two in before the doors & trim arrive. I know once they come in, I'll be plenty busy again.

Reframed the last bedroom door for the new door. Stripped all the old trim off the walls & shimmed out to the drywall (drywall was screwed over the plaster at some point, without changing the wood trim). So the walls are ready for the new trim.

Started installing the laminate floor on Sunday. It sucks trying to do it after work/moving furniture around. Really complicates matters. The floor pot outlets I had to install, also really complicates the installation.

I'm putting off my electric inspection, somewhat out of fear of what he'll find wrong, and somewhat out of lack of space to move everything around to make all the outlets available to the inspector.

I spent most the Christmas weekend putting down a $100 countertop (24" white shelving material from Home Depot). This is just for the appraisal, the old "temporary" plywood counter became much more permanent than intended, and was getting pretty unsightly. I also have a disposal & double basin sink for the first time in nearly 20 years . Swapped out the single basin sink during the counter install, a friend grabed a freebie double sink out of a remodel. I was able to buy Viking appliances back in 2007 during a very short sale, when they offered "salesmen" 75% off retail (the normal discount to the retailer was like 22%), so it worked out cheaper than even GE appliances. I've been the only house in the world with Viking appliances & plywood cabinets. Nice counters & cabinets are in the plan, post refinance. The kitchen was absolutely terrible when I bought the house, the laundry was where the sink is now. Its still not perfect, but so much better. Things like decent lighting, outlets over the counters, counter space around the sink & oven/range, and disposal are all things most kitchens have, but mine lacked. Every step has made such a huge difference.

Looks great! Keep at it!!

x2, it's fun to watch your progress!

Thanks guys,

It's all very gratifying to see the finishing touches happening. But, I'm burning out, again. I feel like I might die of stubbornness, or the girl friend might kill me. I'm in a zone where all I can think about is what needs to get done. I have been putting in 12+ hr days on the weekends, and doing 3-4 hours after work. I wake up tired, sore, and disorganized EVERY MORNING.

I've gotten most the laminate flooring down. Its really looking very nice. By the end of the weekend, it will be done. But, I might have convinced myself to take a day off and go snowboarding. I think I need a little "Chad Time".

Put in some personal time will help you resettle yourself and maybe even clear up your mind to attack it again.

Sometimes putting things down and standing back helps. I've had to do it with my house and bronco projects.

Yup. Taking breaks from my rig usually results in good progress soon after.

I didn't exactly take a day off, but I slowed the pace a little.

Finishing the floor was so gratifying, I couldn't stop till I was done. I couldn't be happier with the results.

Today, I passed my final electrical inspection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a major milestone. I have officially completely rewired an 1882 house, by myself (with lots of advice). There was still live knob & tube wiring & 100 amp service, when I started. Now I have 200 amp service, 100 amps to the garage, 100% new wires, panels, outlets & wiring.

The City of Gunnison inspector told me he'd close my city permit when the electrical was finaled. So I'll call him on Monday.

The doors & trim are behind schedule, and I'm grateful. I'll take the weekend, and maybe next and blow off some steam.

The 1903 Brunswick pooltable cabinet is uncrated & waiting to be assembled.

I can't wait till the doors & trim are up, and I can stop moving everything around. Until then, things are still unorganized.

Holy smokes! Looking like a home! Congrats.

Congrats! You've got a nice place!

Love the brick. If/when I move again, I am going to convince Frau Castle that we need an old warehouse.

Wow! Congrats! I remember seeing that area when I grabbed the exploder, amazing changes.

Congrats Gunni

That is one helluva accomplishment !

Thanks for all the compliments. I'm really happy with the results.

Looks awesome, love to see it person someday!

Looks really good! We did a similar floor in our TX house. Hand scraped.




I like your decor for sure.

Thanks JD. The "handscraped" stuff is my favorite, but I'm on a get-r-done budget. So I went cheap. But at $.75/sq ft, including padding, its the best $500 I could have spent!

This weekend, I spent a little time trimming out the last few small pieces, cobbled together a front door threshold, caulked around the floor outlets & heater pipes (just to fill the 5/16" gap). Trying to avoid getting 90% done, and not really finishing a project.

Tonight is an informal open house. I've invited a couple friends over for the National Championship game. GO BUCKS!

BAM!